


Rubeus, Of The Forest

by Llaeyro



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Asexual Character, Creature Fic, Gen, Hagrid is a Leshy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-07 05:53:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10353609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llaeyro/pseuds/Llaeyro
Summary: It’s time Hagrid let someone in on his secret.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Finishing of some abandoned WiP's. This was started for hp_creatures on LJ's March 2016 [picture prompt](http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/llaeyro/21421181/38761/38761_800.jpg), from which I gleaned the idea of a forest with dangers inside. It got a bit abandoned and forgotten about, but I decided to finish it off, particularly as I’m the one who took and submitted that photograph :P
> 
> [Read on LJ](http://llaeyro.livejournal.com/67976.html).

Hagrid had never really had much interest in people. Not that he didn’t like them, quite the opposite. He cared for all he met who deserved it, but they just weren’t very interesting, and often they did look or talk down to him, and judge him. Creatures were easier. Reliable. Predictable. Fascinating… And they cared back, much more often than people did.

At his age, he has grown used to being rather unique, in more ways than one. Through his teens he just wasn’t worried with finding a girlfriend, or a boyfriend. In fact, the thought of intimacy made him feel very uncomfortable and a little queazy. It never really bothered him, but increasingly he had found himself thinking it would be nice to have a companion, if the right person came along. For many years, those thoughts added to the overall feeling that he really didn’t fit in around here. Maybe he should give up trying to live as a wizard and embrace the other side of himself, the one he keeps secret. Maybe he could be happier without humans in his life. For a while, he had believed it.

Then Charlie came along.

Hagrid had been curious about the red-headed lad, always the last to leave after Care of Magical Creatures class, hanging around the lake and trying to sketch the grindylows. He didn’t really get to know Charlie until he was a bit older, and his twin brothers were causing chaos at every turn. They’d started talking one day when Hagrid had been feeding the Thestrals, which Charlie couldn’t see. Hagrid had realised early on that Charlie was special. That maybe Charlie could understand him, or at least come closer than anyone had before.

And he had. There was still one secret in the way, however. Now, faced with the prospect of Charlie leaving after graduation in a few days, Hagrid knows he has nothing else to lose. He knows people may not approve. It is a rather unconventional idea. Then again, Charlie has never been one for convention. It's one of the reasons they get on so well. Hagrid can only hope that the sharing of his secret will be enough to convince Charlie to stay with him.

Hagrid has been sitting outside his hut, staring glassy-eyed across the lake, lost in thought. He hadn’t noticed the boy—hardly a boy anymore, really—running down the hillside towards him.

“Hagrid! I’ve just had great news, I—Is everything alright?”

Hagrid shakes himself out of his stupor. “Yeah, o’ course! O’ course… I just, well,” he falters as he stands, scratching at his beard and not quite looking at Charlie. “Look, there’s summat I’ve not told yer… Not told anyone, ever, actually. Well I think Dumbledore knows, Dumbledore knows everything, y’know. But, but I want you to know, Charlie. I want yer to understand.”

“What fascinating but deadly creature have you gotten hold of now?” Charlie teases. Hagrid’s nervous demeanor doesn’t change.

“Not deadly, no. Troublesome, sometimes but with heart in t’ right place. Certainly reckon yeh’ll have a lot o’ questions for me.” He starts to lumber towards the forest, Charlie following at his side, curious and eager.

His nerves dissipate, gradually replaced by calmness and belonging the further they step into the forest. For the first time with company, he tries to leave Hagrid of Hogwarts at the edge of the grounds and embrace Rubeus of the forest. The trees around him seem to be shrinking gradually, but he hardly notices—it is all so familiar.

“Er… Hagrid? Are you getting bigger or am I getting smaller here?” Charlie chuckles nervously.

“Oh, righ’, yeh… I can change that.” The trees around him start to grow again, and so does Charlie as the ground nears. He hears a gasp beside him and turns to Charlie. “Better?” he asks genially, now eye-to-eye with Charlie for the first time.

Charlie stares at him wide-eyed, but they are eyes full of curiosity and wonder. “Hagrid… Are you a shapeshifter?”

Hagrid paints a confused expression onto his face. “Whatever gave you that idea, now?” With a wink, he spontaneously sprouts fluffy white rabbit ears.

“So that’s the big secret—you’re a metamorphmagus?” Charlie asks with a laugh, scratching Hagrid behind his long, pointy ears.

“Well no, there’s more to it than tha’, yer see.” Hagrid draws his ears back to their normal shape, grows a few feet and calls out into the forest.

“ _Anyone ‘ave a few spare minutes_?”

Charlie frowns, but Hagrid hadn’t expected Charlie to understand him. No regular folk, wizard or Muggle, would. It is a sacred and ancient language, shared between his kind and the animals of the forest, and known by no other. Here, in Scotland, it is his alone.

Charlie’s face lights up with excitement as friends begin to emerge from shadows and behind trees, but he sidles closer to Hagrid. Hagrid grins.

“ _This is Charlie, he is a friend to all creatures._ S’alright, Charlie, I told ‘em yer to be trusted.”

“And they trust you? All of them?” Charlie asks quietly, his voice full of wonder as he eyes the wolf pack warily.

“O’course. I’m the guardian of this ‘ere forest.” Hagrid turns to face him, placing a large hand carefully upon the lad’s shoulder. “I’m a Leshy, Charlie. The forest is me home, and this is me family. We take care o’ each other. We live different lives though. They’re not very interested in sitting down in me cabin for a chat over a cuppa.” He sighs, shrinking down again to Charlie’s height. “What I’m trying to say is… Well, it’s lonely, being the only Leshy ‘round these parts, and it’s a big job, big ol’ forest. Dumbledore has said that if I wanted to recommend someone to help, they’d as good as ‘ave the job.”

Charlie’s excited expression has dropped. He looks pained as he glances from Hagrid to the fantastic beasts around them.

“What do you say, Charlie? I could build yer a cabin, or you could sleep in the castle, o’ course, if you’d prefer. You’d get to spend every day with the creatures and… and wi’ me.” Hagrid is wringing his hands as he nervously shuffles from foot to foot. From the look on Charlie’s face, he already knows what the answer will be.

“Hagrid… It’s an amazing offer… All this is amazing— _you’re_ amazing… But I’ve already been accepted at the dragon reserve in Romania. I was coming to tell you… I’m so sorry, really.”

Hagrid turns away, waving Charlie off, trying to keep his emotions in check.

“Hagrid, really, if I’d have known sooner—”

“Don’t think on it, Charlie,” he says dismissively, turning back to face him, back to his regular height. “This is a fantastic opportunity! You better write me, y’hear? I wanna know all about them dragons.” He plasters a smile onto his face, filled with all the affection and pride he feels for Charlie. He will do a grand job in Romania, he is sure of it.

“Thank you, Hagrid.” Charlie flings himself at Hagrid at, when the initial shock wears off, Hagrid carefully wraps his arms around him. “I’ll come and visit, and maybe you can come and visit me, in the holidays? I can introduce you to the dragons.”

“I’d certainly like tha’, if I can find a way to travel so far. With my bulk, my options are somewhat limited.”

Charlie pulls back slightly, frowning up at him. “But Hagrid, you’re a shapeshifter. You can be any size you want!”

“Well me creature magic is connected to the forest, y’see. The further I am from the forest I call home, the less I can do.”

“Well anyway, I’ll come and see you, whenever I can. And when I’ve had enough of dragons, maybe you’ll still be looking for an assistant.”

“Oh, I don’t know about tha’...” Hagrid frowns, trying to hide his amusement as Charlie looks up at him, slightly hurt. “As if you, Charlie Weasley, could ever get sick of dragons.”

Charlie laughs with him, then. A certain sulleness hangs over the rest of the evening. Even as they laugh and chat, and Hagrid excitedly introduces Charlie to the creatures of the forest—some he’s never even heard of—there’s the lingering knowledge in the background that this is goodbye. Charlie may come back and visit, but the years they are now destined to spend apart will not be returned. Charlie is young and impressionable. When Hagrid sees him next, it could be like meeting a stranger.

At least they have this night, to share their passion.

They will always have tonight.

_Fin_


End file.
